tirsdag den 20. maj 2014

The title is "Bringing Libraries on the agenda - a political Question" It's a introduction to The Danish Library Association and its unique organizational structure that involves both politicians and professionals.

In the Danish Library Association we represent one of the more radical solutions to achieving this political approach to working for
libraries: We have brought the political decision-makers and the library professionals together in the same association. The
President is always politicians and local politicians always constitute the
majority.

Therefore, we have a constant dialogue between professionals
and politicians about libraries. Not only the economy, also how they should be
developed and which need citizens has.

BUT My experience
is that it is way easier to convince the politicians of the need for books than
it is to convince them of the need for internetservices, development projects
and contracting of database licenses.

It is hard to define, what the modern library is. And if we can’t say what it is, and if we can’t explain what the library has to offer. Nobody will say they need or miss the library.

And that's why it is difficult to make the political
decision makers understand, promote and finance these changes.

That’s why we need to put the Library on the Political
agenda.

In Denmark almost all the Libraries are funded by
tax and all the libraries is free to use, In the
way, that all the basis services are free of charge for the public.

We have 98 municipalities and all of them are obligated, by
legislation, to have a library and to finance it.

Some of the municipalities have more than one library.
We have approximately 450 public libraries, to a population of 5,5 mil. people

We have 98 main-libraries and 350 smaller Libraries,
some of them we call “open Libraries” it is term for a concept that allows
users to access the library space in principle 24/7 and serve them- selves with
loans and return materials. And use the computers, read or maybe even set up a
meeting or an event, if the space allows it.

One of the reasons for the tradition bringen politicians and and the library professionals together is that
Denmark, got its first Library Act in 1920. When you have library legislation, which needs regular
revision, you need to have contacts in the political system. Another reason is that the Danish public libraries gradually moved from state grants to local municipality grants, therefore it is necessary to links to the local politicians.

So we have to work with both the locals politicians and our national politicians

The legislation is made by the parliament, while the funding for the libraries come from the
municipalities.

The Danish Library Association is organized on the basis of a number of local associations working on regional level. These local associations elect representatives to the Council of the National association.

The Council elects from within its members an Executive Committee with ten members

including a president, who is always a politician, and two vice presidents, one of them is a library professional and one is a
politician

I think this mix of politicians and library
professionals works in a constructive way. The professionals inspire the politicians and the politicians give a good insight into how we need to prioritize and other times it functions inversely.

So I hope we also in the future will be able to get this symbiosis to function and that local politicians want to put as much thought into
the matter and will work in our board, like they do today.

Culture cannot just be defined by its contribution to economic growth and job creation. The concept of a creativity‐driven Europe only partially addresses the objectives of the EU strategy set out in ‘Europe 2020’.

But unfortunately there are many opportunities to prevent libraries possibility of lending to the public.

I found an example of a digital material can not be borrowed at the library. Currently these are the works of Marx and Engels, therefore it is worthwhile to look at, just on Labour Day.

In The Chronicle April 29 you could read an Article that "Readers of Marx and Engels Decry Publishers Assertion of Copyright"

"In a capitalist world, even a radical publishing house devoted to the works of socialist thinkers has to make money to survive. That’s the argument being used by Lawrence & Wishart, a London-based publisher, to explain why it has asked the Marxists Internet Archive,a volunteer-run online collection of socialist writers’ works, to remove from the website copyrighted material from the publisher’sMarx Engels Collected Works by April 30.

The publisher says it wants to market a digital edition to libraries in order to keep itself in business. While the Marxists Internet Archive is not contesting the company’s right to enforce its copyright, news of its request set off an outcry from some observers and supporters of the archive.

"If Lawrence & Wishart still considers itself a socialist institution, its treatment of the archive is uncomradely at best, and arguably much worse; while if the press is now purely a capitalist enterprise, its behavior is merely stupid," wrote the columnist and critic Scott McLemee in an April 24 post on the Crooked Timber blog.

More than 4,000 people have now signed a petition on Change.org calling for an end to copyright on Marx and Engels’s work. "Privatization of Marx and Engels’ writings is like getting a trademark for the words ‘socialism’ or ‘communism,’" the petition says."

"Still, it’s "unfortunate that a left-wing publishing house would want to restrict access to the works of a major left-wing thinker to those affiliated with a university or college library that can afford to purchase L&W’s new digital edition," said Mr. Sperber professor of history at the University of Missouri at Columbia and a noted expert on Karl Marx. "Hegel, to name someone who was a big influence on Marx, once described a tragedy as ‘a conflict of two rights.’ That seems to sum up the situation."